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England have requested Boyd Rankin be allowed to bowl against them for Essex (Picture: Getty)

England’s Ashes warm-up against Essex has lost its first-class status following an extraordinary turn of events on day three at Chelmsford.

Boyd Rankin, the Irish-born seamer who is 12th man for England, and Essex’s Reece Topley were drafted into the home side’s bowling attack after they lost Tymal Mills, David Masters and Tom Westley to injury.

It left England facing a powder puff attack which at one point saw stand-in Essex captain Ravi Bopara turn to the very occassional off spin of former England batman Owais Shah.

With the prospect of the batsmen getting very little meaningful practice ahead of next week’s first Ashes Test against Australia, England put a request in to Essex for Rankin and Topley to be allowed to bowl, which the county agreed to.

It means the game has been stripped of its first-class status and the century by England’s Tim Bresnan – the Yorkshire seamer’s first in six years – as well as Essex leg spinner Tom Craddock’s maiden five-wicket haul will be erased from the record books.

Tim Bresnan’s century will not go in the record books (Picture: Reuters/Action Images)

England were cruising along at 138 for one when Topley came on to bowl in the 35th over of their second innings but just three deliveries of this now non-first-class match were possible before rain halted play at the County Ground.

Skipper Alastair Cook, on 69, and Jonathan Trott (39) were at the crease and at least they will now have some more challenging bowling to face when the match restarts.

England coach Andy Flower will be keen for his batsmen to face the left-arm seam of Topley in preparation for Australia’s Mitchell Starc and James Faulkner after Mills was forced out of the match with a hamstring tear.

Rankin will also provide them with a decent workout when the Warwickshire seamer, bizarrely, makes his Essex debut.